Heavy Snow in Michigan, December 23 to 30, 2001

Name: Heavy Snow in Michigan, December 23 to 30, 2001
Start: 2001-12-23T23:00
End: 2001-12-30T18:00
Location: Michigan

December 23 to 30, 2001 · NWS MQT · 8 events in 8 counties and zones

A storm organized in the central plains on 12/22 and headed towards Michigan's Upper Peninsula. P.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 8 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 8

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS MQT wrote it up.

A storm organized in the central plains on 12/22 and headed towards Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A cold front associated with the storm moved through the U.P. during the early morning of 12/23. From 12/24 to 12/31, a prolonged lake effect snow event occurred with heavy amounts of snowfall reported each day in areas of the Lake Superior snowbelts. Snowfall amounts were highly dependent on the prevailing wind direction which was north or northwest. Marquette set a daily snowfall record of 13.0 inches of snow on 12/24, Ironwood had 17.5 Inches of snow, Wakefield 11 inches, Marenisco 10 inches, Watersmeet 12.5 inches and Shingleton 10.2 inches. On 12/25, Ironwood picked up another 14.5 inches of snow, Bessemer had 10 inches, Wakefield 12 inches and Rockland reported 21.1 inches of snow. Alger and Luce Counties also reported heavy snow with Two Heart reporting 9 inches of snow, Grand Marais 6 inches of snow, and a location just south of Munising saw 13.7 inches of snow. On 12/26, the lake effect snow let up slightly. Atlantic Mine reported 8-10 inches of snow and Wakefield reported 8 inches of snow. On 12/27, lake effect snow continued with Two Heart reporting 15 inches, Melstrand 13 inches, and Wakefield reported 12 inches. On 12/28, more lake effect snow fell. Rockland had 10.2 inches of new snow, Wakefield had 10 inches of new snow, Au Train 24 inches, and Melstrand 9.8 inches. On 12/29, heavy lake effect snow continued in places. NWS Marquette in Negaunee had 11.5 inches. On 12/30, lake effect snow diminished, but Munising received 7.0 more inches. Wakefield reported 72 inches of snow out of the lake effect snow event from 12/23-12/30. The lake effect snow showers finally came to an end over the eastern Upper Peninsula on 12/31.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Marquette, MI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 23, 10:00 PM EST, 1 hour earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 23, 10:00 PM EST, 1 hour before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MARQUETTE MI
1000 PM EST SUN DEC 23 2001

SNOWFALL AMOUNTS/HEADLINES ARE THE CONCERNS OVERNIGHT.

WV IMAGERY SHOWS ONE STRONG SHORTWAVE ROTATING THRU LWR MI AND
ANOTHER DRIVING SE TWD IL. A SUBTLE SHORTWAVE WAS JUST N OF LK
SUPERIOR...AND IR IMAGERY SHOWS CLOUDS ENHANCING IN THAT VCNTY.
UPSALA RADAR NW OF CYQT SHOWS SOME INCREASE IN SNOW COVERAGE THERE.
SFC LOW WAS STILL OVER ERN LK SUPERIOR NEAR CARIBOU ISLAND...
RESULTING IN SWRLY BNDRY LAYER FLOW OVER ERN FA/SE LK SUPERIOR.
NNWRLY FLOW IS WELL ESTABLISHED OVER WRN LK WITH 850MB TEMPS WELL
COLD ENOUGH FOR LK ENHANCEMENT. AS EXPECTED...SNOWFALL HAS BEEN
HEAVIEST OVER THE WRN FA WITH AMOUNTS TODAY AS MUCH AS 6-7 INCHES
ROUGHLY FROM IRONWOOD TO ROCKLAND.

FCST SNOW AMOUNTS TONIGHT WILL REVOLVE AROUND AFFECTS OF SUBTLE
SHORTWAVE N OF LK. 12Z/18Z MODELS DONT APPEAR TO HAVE A GREAT
HANDLE ON SHORTWAVE AS THEY LOOK TOO SHEARED. LATEST RUC SEEMS TO
HAVE A BETTER HANDLE...SHOWING SHORTWAVE DRIFTING TO NEAR KDLH BY
09Z. LK-850MB DELTA-T RUNNING AROUND 14C IS PLENTY SUFFICIENT FOR LK
ENHANCEMENT. NNWRLY FLOW SHOULD FAVOR ONTONAGON/GOGEBIC FOR HEAVIEST
SNOWFALL OVERNIGHT AS LOW-LEVEL CONVERGENCE TYPICALLY MAXIMIZES IN
THAT AREA MORE SO THAN OVER KEWEENAW WITH THAT WIND DIRECTION.
INSTABILITY/SYNOPTIC LIFT SUPPORTIVE OF ANOTHER 4-7 INCHES DURING
OVERNIGHT PERIOD.

FARTHER E...WITH LOW NEAR CARIBOU ISLAND...WIND FIELD HAS NOT YET
BECOME WELL ESTABLISHED AS OF YET AND CAA IS STILL WEAK. RUC SHOWS
THIS NICELY WITH WEDGE OF -6C 850MB AIR (BORDERLINE FOR ENHANCEMENT)
HOLDING OVER ERN LK VERY EARLY THIS EVENING. TEMPS TO FALL TO AROUND
-10C BY 09Z WITH WIND FIELD BECOMING ALIGNED IN A NRLY DIRECTION
FROM KEWEENAW BAY TO WHITEFISH PT BY 12Z AS SFC LOW DRIFTS INTO ERN
UPPER MI...A TYPICAL TRACK AS IT IS INFLUENCED BY THE WARMTH OF THE
GREAT LAKES. CMAN OBS AND SFC OBS AROUND NSHORE OF LK SUPERIOR SHOW
WINDS VEERING A BIT THIS EVENING...GIVING SUPPORT FOR THE NRLY WIND
RUC SHOWS DEVELOPING SWD ACROSS LK OVERNIGHT. LATEST RADAR IMAGES
SHOW REFLECTIVITIES BEGINNING TO FILL IN AND INCREASE...SO LOOKS
LIKE THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO GET GOING OVER THE ERN LK. THINK
SNOWFALL RATES SHOULD INCREASE TO RATES OF 2-4INCHES/6HR BY 12Z.
HEADLINES ARE A BIT COMPLICATED RIGHT NOW...AND WILL STILL BE AFTER
THIS ISSUANCE. THINK THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR WRNG CRITERIA
SNOWFALL OVER PARTS OF BARAGA/MARQUETTE COUNTY OVERNIGHT TO LATE MON
AFTN. PRIME SNOW TIME SHOULD BE LATE TONIGHT/MON MORNING. WILL DROP
WATCH FOR MON NIGHT. WILL UPGRADE ALGER TO WRNG FOR OVERNIGHT INTO
MON NIGHT. WILL DROP ADVY FOR LUCE TONIGHT AS WINDS DO NOT SHIFT NW
UNTIL LATE AS LOW DRIFTS SSE. WILL LEAVE WATCH UP FOR LUCE MON/MON
NIGHT AS IT IS STILL QUESTIONABLE HOW EVENT WILL PLAY OUT THERE.

.MQT...WINTER STORM WARNING OVERNIGHT/MONDAY MIZ001>003-009.
       WINTER STORM WARNING OVERNIGHT/MONDAY MIZ004-005.
       WINTER STORM WARNING OVERNIGHT INTO MON NIGHT MIZ006.
       WINTER STORM WATCH MIZ007 MON/MON NIGHT.
       GALE WARNING WEST HALF LAKE SUPERIOR.

ROLFSON

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

8 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Gogebic

When: December 23, 11:00 PM EST to December 29, 2:00 PM EST
Where: Gogebic forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 46.496, -89.796 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Ontonagon

When: December 23, 11:00 PM EST to December 29, 2:00 PM EST
Where: Ontonagon forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 46.778, -89.305 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Houghton

When: December 24, 2:00 AM EST to December 29, 2:00 PM EST
Where: Houghton forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 46.992, -88.652 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Keweenaw

When: December 24, 2:00 AM EST to December 29, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Keweenaw forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 47.283, -88.212 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Baraga

When: December 24, 2:00 AM EST to December 29, 6:00 PM EST
Where: Baraga forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 46.700, -88.352 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Marquette

When: December 24, 7:00 AM EST to December 30, 10:00 AM EST
Where: Marquette forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 46.663, -87.573 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Alger

When: December 24, 1:00 PM EST to December 30, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Alger forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 46.451, -86.548 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Luce

When: December 24, 4:00 PM EST to December 30, 6:00 PM EST
Where: Luce forecast zone
Reported by: DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
Coordinates: 46.368, -85.509 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Michigan in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Michigan, December 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5275539, 5275540, 5275541, 5275542, 5275543, 5275544, 5275545, 5275546.